In this work, the influence of different oil extraction methods and different refining processes on nutritional
quality of camellia seed oil was investigated. The results showed that the crude oil extracted by cold pressing had the
highest content of unsaturated fatty acids (87.92 ± 0.06)% followed by that (87.83 ± 0.05)% from aqueous enzymatic
extraction, AEE. No significant difference was observed in fatty acid composition of refined oils following different
refining processes (P ＞ 0.05). The total content of VE in cold pressed oil was (213.70 ± 1.30) mg/kg while AEE oil
contained (204.45 ± 1.24) mg/kg VE, which were significantly higher than that of the oils extracted by five other methods
including cold pressing (P ＜ 0.05). The contents of squalene in cold pressed and AEE oils were (113.71 ± 1.20) mg/kg and
(114.37 ± 1.16) mg/kg, respectively, which were slightly higher than that of the oil extracted by hot pressing (P ＞ 0.05) but
significantly higher than that of the oil extracted by three other methods (P ＜ 0.05). However, significant losses of VE and
squalene were found during refining. Alkali refining and deodorization process were main steps which affect the nutritional
quality of camellia seed oil.